Sensory play. When you dig into the term, it’s hard to tell where it begins and ends. Any and all forms of play involve your child’s senses in some way. They touch, they observe colors, consider textures and sounds, they discover if the item has a scent, they may even sample it with their mouths (especially if they’re babies or toddlers). It’s impossible to be in the world and not have your senses engage.
So why is it important to create space and time for sensory play? It seems like it would be a natural thing that you don’t need to do much to encourage. And that can be true. Although our world is getting more and more screen-based. And children spend less time in nature interacting with mud and dirt and weird gick.
Little ones need to play with slippery squishy mud, thick mud-pie mud, and slimy watery-mud. Their brains NEED to play with these substances. Interacting with them can fire off all sorts of connections. So let’s tidy that up and bring it to the kitchen table in the form of doughs and clays.
Unlike other craft activities, doughs and clays are endlessly changeable. When you make a mark with a crayon, it stays on the paper. If you roll out a snake of dough, you can make all sorts of shapes over and over again. This encourages children to experiment and refine their ideas. They can create 3d items that teach them about structure as well as improve their spatial reasoning.
Many clays and doughs are scented, too. While the child is experimenting, they'll also be engaging their sense of smell.
If the child stands while playing with these substances, their whole bodies get involved. And that is the sensory play sweet-spot. When balance as well as touch, taste (discouraged in this situation), smell, sound, and sight are all brought to the table, the creativity and developmental benefits are magnified.
To engage all their senses including taste, we LOVE to get kids involved in cooking. Making cookies is our favorite way to get kids in the kitchen. Especially if it's a dough you roll out to use cookie cutters!
So don’t be timid. Make some space and time for hands-on play with weird gick!
